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Thursday, 30 June 2011

NEW KINSALE ART GALLERY

The bigger risk? Painting in the lands of a rain forest tribe in Borneo or opening a new art gallery in these recessionary times. That question came up at a pleasant function in Kinsale last evening when Fishy Fishy’s Martin Shanahan opened a third Cork gallery for Buckley Fine Art.

Martin hangs art in his restaurant and at home and one of his favourite artists is Philip Gray who may well succeed the restaurateur as Mr Kinsale. Buckley presented the Kinsale Collection by Gray as their opening offering and it certainly went down well.

Gray revealed that he feels at home in Kinsale. And the series of pictures of the town, and of the seas in general, underline this affinity. Not many inland people would have experienced a scene like The Velvet Night.

Many of the sea pictures are large but there are some smaller works on view including those of local familiar foodie landmarks Fishy Fishy and The Bulman.

The quiet Kinsale works are somewhat surprising for Gray, now well known for his extreme painting. He has worked on Everest, in hot and close proximity to an Icelandic volcano and underwater on a wreck where some large hungry looking sharks circled.

Gray though will soon again leave behind the peace and quiet of Kinsale and his Cork Dockyard studio to head to the rain forests of Borneo to once again paint in extreme conditions.

At a recent exhibition of his in the Cork Vision centre, members of the opening night audience each had a chance to put their mark on a canvas. Gray finished it off and it now hangs in Cork Airport. A similar plan is in train for Borneo. A blank canvas will be set up for the villagers with each individual asked to make his mark.

Gray will then finish the work which will later be auctioned off in aid of the rain forest.

Best of luck with that Philip and best of luck also to the Buckleys, Ken and Mark, who will hope to be kept very busy with their galleries in Clonakilty, Cork City (Fenns Quay) and now Kinsale.